Tennessee teachers evaluate evaluation in session run by SCORE

Present good, bad of new rating system

From left, MCS teacher Brittany Clark, SCS chairman David Pickler, SCS teacher Alisa Bledsoe, and Memphis district leader Taquilla Banks listen to other panelists during a meeting of the governor's independent panel in charge of assessing the fairness of the new teacher evaluation process.

Teachers like that their new evaluations make them focus more and concentrate on making sure learning is happening, but they and the principals who supervise them have some real concerns about how trustworthy much of the data is and how they can be sure the process is fair.

The positives and negatives came out Monday in a two-hour session run by SCORE, the education advocacy group Gov. Bill Haslam appointed in December to look at the model and recommend improvements.

"It has definitely made me more conscious of everyday readiness," said Alisa Bledsoe, Shelby County Schools teacher. "It has definitely caused me to be a lot more aware of student participation in the learning process."

Teachers also said they feel more respected by the public because the evaluation model -- which includes classroom visits, test score data and immediate feedback-- mirrors what happens in the corporate workplace.

"We deserve credit for trying to come up with an observation that can be used to improve teaching," said Stephanie Fitzgerald, biology teacher at Craigmont High. "But we don't want people to be so stressed it actually interferes. This is the year we are trying to hit a balance."

SCORE selected 19 participants to talk candidly about the opportunities and challenges of the system. The mix here included teachers and principals from the city and county schools, plus two school board members and a business leader. By June 1, SCORE will present its findings and recommendations to the state Board of Education.

Statewide, teachers are anxious about test score data, which represents 35 percent of their final evaluation. Because it applies only to teachers who teach subjects covered by state tests, the majority of teachers do not have data tied to their students.

For now, their scores will be based on an average of their school's test scores, a point of great concern for teachers.

Others, including Fitzgerald, say they have no way of knowing how the scores are manipulated to show the teacher's role in student achievement. "It's a black box no one is allowed to know what computations go on in there," she said.

The test score data is designed to show how much growth a student experienced in a teacher's classroom. The goal is that each teacher is strong enough to help students gain at least a year's worth of knowledge.

The other major component in the evaluation is based on principal observations. Tennessee principals for years observed their tenured teachers once every five years. Under the new matrix, they are observed four times a year.

"It takes a while to adjust," said MCS teacher Peter Tang. "You also have to account for what happened before. If you've been doing something for 20 years and were told you were doing fine, that you get a one or a two (out of a five-point score), it doesn't make sense."

Shaun Paige, principal at White Station Middle, said he has profound concerns that principals are going to be judged on how closely their observations reflect the teacher's test score data. "It opens the door for some unethical behavior," he said.

Most principals, he said, say the number of observations are "unrealistic."